The recent scandal around Edward Snowden, a former employee of the National Security Agency of the United States of America, and his exposure of the US government’s national and international surveillance of the public has increased an interest in conspiracy theories. Though these theories have been around for decades, Snowden’s compromising made the public to take a look at them from a different perspective. Theories about global shadowing, lustration, and total control were considered myths, but now the enthusiasts are revising the most popular conspiracy theories and guessing whether they are true as well. Among the most popular conspiracy theories are those about the origin of the AIDS virus, Pearl Harbor, and the CIA’s implication in drug distribution.
One of the most popular conspiracy theories is that AIDS, this scourge of third-world countries, was artificially created in a laboratory. This version of the virus’ origin was introduced by Dr. William Campbell Douglass, who had claimed that HIV, which causes AIDS, was designed in 1974 in the laboratories of the World Health Organization (Telegraph). He believed that it was created for experiments in Africa and other third-world countries, supposedly as an attempt to control overpopulation. Other researchers have claimed that AIDS was created by the CIA or the KGB with the same purpose.
Another popular conspiracy theory refers to the Pearl Harbor tragedy. Theorists believe that the Japanese forces were provoked to attack Pearl Harbor by President Franklin Roosevelt, who knew about the planned assault but failed to warn his fleet commanders (Telegraph). He is believed to be warned by the governments of Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, Korea and the Soviet Union; theorists assume that Roosevelt needed the Pearl Harbor base to be attacked to provoke Hitler into declaring war on the US. The American public and Congress were against the US entering the war in Europe, so Roosevelt needed a strong...